You never know, the Salesman may be a Scoobynetter so I have to be a little vague with some of the descriptions but here goes:

I'm looking to negotiate a deal on a Z4 for my wife. It's a 3.0 model with a few bells and whistles on it (none of which are particularly appealing to my wife) but it's unregistered and ready to go.

They have offered £14k for her car which I think is too low, given that they have an identical car with slightly higher mileage on the forecourt for £16.995 plus it's an easy car to shift. The asking price for the Z4 is £32,500 which needless to say is too high in my opinion given that the toys it has aren't really that important to her.

So, it's near to the end of the quarter and we want the car and they want to sell the car but I don't want to pay more than £15k for it - the difference between her car and the purchase price.

So, any of you sly boogers out there got any tips on how to get the deal I'm after?

 

Sorry to be not much help but I think you'll be lucky.

Quarter end you might get 2-5% off the value of the Z4 but your reasoning for thinking it's worth less than that just because your wife won't use the toys is, ummm, odd (the same reasoning should mean that someone can buy a 360 Modena for £30k because they won't really use all the power and don't like leather).

In my experience, BMW dealers rarely shift on the trade-in price of your car.

You're basically asking them to shift by £3500 from the current deal. Good luck ... (will be happy for you if you get it though).

Ian.

 

If you are going to negotiate I'd say you should negotiate on one front only. Either hammer the price of the BMW down and accept their offer for your car OR get a better deal for your car but pay full asking for the new one. To attack on two fronts is harder and more complicated and probably won't make much/any difference.

 

Try 3 or 4 diferent stealers,get quotes in writing and show them and ask if they can better it, eventually they will hold firm but they want your business and they will give a little.

 

agreed with Saxo here - The dealer is in a good position here as he knows you want to sell your car in trade for his new car. There are lots of internet sites around which describe how to go about dealing with a dealer (a profi who does this for a living), and how to try and get the upper hand... Good luck with the sale and the buy though - but do your homework well, find out what you can and what you can get for your car privately perhaps... it may save you a few $$ in the end!

Neal

PS: there is more than one bmw dealer in the country... and some dealers in the middle of nowhere may be more easily swayed with the prospect of a sale... Here they are for sure . There is a statistic listing of sales of cars for different regions which in some cases is really surprising.

PPS: send me an email and we can chat more if you like....

 

Sell her car privately, best way to do it financially and paying full in cash, you'll be able to discount further. What is the current car?

 

as Ian says, BM dealers are not known for their overwhelming generosity in striking bargains. generally it's a matter of "give us the price we want or eff off so we can get on with selling the car to someone else". I could go on and on about my experiences with trying to buy a MINI off the robbing c**ts, but it would take too long. good example was when they lost the stereo during an upgrade, and tried to blame *me* for losing it. eventual outcome was admission that they had sent the unit back to BMW, *no apology*, bill for *£500* for changing the tape unit to a CD unit, and then, later, an offer of £100 worth of MINI accessories for having stolen my old unit. worst customer care i have ever experienced.

 

I have just parted with my Z4 due to many problems that it has had. The sort of price you are asking for is the price that they would have bought it in at so there's no chance.

Also second hand 3.0l are very thin on the ground and when the sun starts to shine they will be list everywhere and premiums for private (some BMW dealers aren't allowed to sell over original list price)

If its £32500, realistically if you get to £31500 or even £31000 you've done well and I would advise you to cash and wrap.

Remember the dealer will have to make their margin too

 

Some good stuff here thanks. The car in that I'm chopping in is a Mini Cooper S with 4.5k on the clock so it will sell but all I've managed is to close the gap to £17k - whether he's upped the offer on the Mini or taken some off his margin doesn't matter, it's roughly 8% off the price of the Beemer.

Either I'm being unrealistic or negotiations are a lot tougher in my business as this doesn't seem all that great to me, bearing in mind they must have some retrospective dealer rebate from BMW UK if they've hit targets at the end of the quarter.

Ian - the point I was making about the toys is that they have no worth as far as my wife is concerned. However, if it had parking control and a couple of other bits then they would be of interest/have value to her.

Cheeseboy, I can't figure out how to email you?

 

Well whatever he has done, 8% off the new Z4 is very good.. find out exactly what he's done. if he hasn't shifted on the trade in price sell private and snap the Z4 up at 8%. somehow i think he might of bumped up your trade in price a bit because 8% is a lot

 

Agreed, 8% is more than I would have expected, BMW dealers are not renowned for taking part in haggling!

 

This is when buying cars gets dangerous. It's not even for me but I liked it so much I'm thinking that maybe this is a good deal - heart ruling head - trouble is I then feel as if I've "lost" the negotiation.

Damn cars.

 

Thanks for your help chaps. The dealer came back with another £750 off the price and I got a wind deflector thrown in so it seemed rude not to.

 

Negotiating with a BMW dealer

Trick one,

Depends on whether hostages are involved.